Any brewers in the Bristow/Manassas Va area?

1GR8DA said:

Welcome bro! PM me or check the VL fb page for the upcoming meeting! I'm in VL and may be brewing this weekend also. Hit me up!

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Did you get my PM? I'm right around the corner in Braemar.

Ok folks, first meeting: Wednesday April 11th from 7-8:30pm at the Victory Lakes Clubhouse in Bristow. I figure this will be pretty informal but a solid start. I have reached out to surrounding neighborhoods so I am cautiously optimistic. The clubhouse gives us a venue that has plenty of space and allows us to bring, swap, and drink our brews on sight. Anyone who wants to volunteer with set up and tear down would be appreciated. I would like to see what level of interest we have so we can start to establish members and get this thing rocking!
Cheers

Damn I work Wednesday nights, I'm out.

Awesome! can't wait! I can definitely help tear down, though not sure I can manage to get there much earlier than start-time for setup.

I'm in for the meet up. Looking forward to it...unfortunately my American IPA will only be in bottles for about 11-12 days, so I doubt they will be "ready".

Maybe i'll just bring a couple Founders KBS

Scott...looking forward to hearing about that hop spider. Only heard of people making them with PVC pipes. Good to know someone who welds near by too!

I could be convinced to bring my dual tap kegerator...and maybe donate part of a keg for "tasting"....will anyone have another tasting keg?

Got some buddies that may bring some. I have about 2.5 gallons of a hybrid amber IPA. It will be there for tasting if there is any left by then! I'm brewing a brown this weekend but three weeks is a bit young even with force carbing.

I could bring whatever Keg I'm working on at the time -- provided it's not horrible I just kicked the DFH60 clone, have been carbing the Hop Slam (which tastes NOTHING like hopslam), and may have a two-hearted ale clone carbed in a keg by the time of the meeting.

I can definitely bring a keg; I just don't have a portable tap. They're all ball-lock cornies.

I think it also depends on how many peeps we have. Kegs may be overkill I was originally planning on just bringing a 1/2 gallon growler.

I rarely bottle anymore. Growler may be the way to go. I have picnic taps and a portable charger to gas the kegs. I am going to bring some sort of small cups so people get a taste of what's out there. Not trying to get hammered.

Yeah I could fill some bottles I suppose...depends on the turnout.

I would personally like to have a bunch of small samples even if I can walk home. I don't get a chance to show off my beer gear often maybe I got a little excited.

I have some beer I could bring as well. Its in a keg but its a Belgian dark strong ale that is 11%. Don't think we would be drinking a lot of that lol. I will be brewing a passion fruit wheat tomorrow if anyone wants to join.

I just picked up my group-buy grain order today and had a shocking discovery; something that I really should have realized well before I placed the order:

50# of rice hulls is an IMMENSE bag.

This sucker is physically 3-4x the size of a normal 50# bag of grain.

I can't see myself using this amount inside of 2-3 years so if anyone wants some I am totally up to giving away at least 20# in smaller increments.

I don't think Jay's stocks rice hulls (he may, but I didn't see them) so if you're interested in a few Lbs drop me a note.

I use rice hulls for every all grain batch I use. (Direct fire rims). Happy to take some or more off your hands. FYI: if you are looking for bulk grains, talk to me at the meeting about it. I have a closer easier solution.

I am in on the 11th. I'll have drank thru my current keg and my first biab is still on the gas. No beer from me this time. I look forward to meeting you all.

Ben

the 11th is plenty of time for that batch to carb up

What a great way to "starter" the day !!!

Young beer it is lol

Hazelnut Brown in the fermenter pitched with a monster starter. Hoping to have ready by the meeting.

just pitched a 1.5L Pacman starter into a DFH60 clone. The Non-Hopslam Hopslam feels only about 1/4 of the way carbed. had a flat taste today when Chris stopped in to get some grain. It'll be good; just ain't no hopslam.

-S

Looks like today was the brew day. I just pitched and stored my first batch, now the waiting game, this will be the hard part.

Do most of you guys keg or bottle? I was originally was going to bottle but after having seen some videos about bottles exploding plus more wait time I figured I would be better off kegging, plus I have a fridge in my garage that needs to be put to use.

30 minutes into my Saison brew right now. Hopefully learned some lessons from the last batch. Checked on my American IPA in secondary yesterday and it looks like it's gotten a bit oxidized. I'm a little nervous about it because it has gotten considerably darker since moving to secondary. Going to follow through and bottle in a few days as long as it's not rotten...

ScottSingleton said:

just pitched a 1.5L Pacman starter into a DFH60 clone. The Non-Hopslam Hopslam feels only about 1/4 of the way carbed. had a flat taste today when Chris stopped in to get some grain. It'll be good; just ain't no hopslam.

-S

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Well...I'm up for some non hopslam tasting Hopslam Clone!

I keg maybe 1/2 of what I brew... I still wait a few weeks as I don't shake my kegs and just pop them in the fridge at serving pressure.

Hopslam clone was good it had a nice upfront bitter...I like that a lot..I've never been very successful at clones and sometimes I like mine better. I did this with an arrogant bastard lately and subbed the grain due to what I had. Used marris otter vice 2row as a base malt and for once I made a beer that I like equally to the original. I call it arrogant otter. I'll bring an original and some clone and see what the consensus is...

I bottle and keg...I like to brew a lot so the house batches get kegged and the rest gets bottled. If I end up with a keg I like but is just too much to drink the whole thing before I'm ready for a change i'll bottle the rest from keg and rotate another one in...all about pipeline for me.

Thanks scott for the NN I forgot how much I liked that beer...please think of me for all your NN disposal needs

What's NN? I want some!

Nugget Nectar from Troegs.. got a sixer from Total Wine about a week ago; last one they had.

I'll bring one to the meet to share.

FYI that Hopslam clone is starting to carb up a bit. It's quickly losing the hop-aroma and gaining pure bitterness. I may pop it off the gas and drop in a keg-hop charge to see if I can freshen it up a bit; otherwise it's seeming to be turning into a pure bitter.

ScottSingleton said:

FYI that Hopslam clone is starting to carb up a bit. It's quickly losing the hop-aroma and gaining pure bitterness. I may pop it off the gas and drop in a keg-hop charge to see if I can freshen it up a bit; otherwise it's seeming to be turning into a pure bitter.

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Im sure it ll be just fine, then again there is only one way to find out...

ScottSingleton said:

Nugget Nectar from Troegs.. got a sixer from Total Wine about a week ago; last one they had.

I'll bring one to the meet to share.

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NN is by far one of my favorite beers out there. Went through 3 six packs in the last month or so. Now that Bell's Oberon is out...I stocked up on a couple six packs of that.

I didn't want to do three brews all in one day, but that's how I'm gonna roll...got the mash going for the sour, eta on the start of the Belgian - 3 hours.

The trifecta will be completed!

Now that's an impressive brewday.

Halfway through the Belgian...I've had yeast troubles lately so I'm going to step my starter again OG of 1.102

2 hours after second step...yummy yeast

I thought you weren't supposed to use airlocks on starters. I'm sure it's one of those highly opinionated things...but I gathered that the commonly used practice was loose foil because a good exchange of oxygen in a starter was good.

By the way...another shipment of Nugget Nectar came into Total Wine. Bought be two six packs!

ajsnow6234 said:

I thought you weren't supposed to use airlocks on starters. I'm sure it's one of those highly opinionated things...but I gathered that the commonly used practice was loose foil because a good exchange of oxygen in a starter was good.

By the way...another shipment of Nugget Nectar came into Total Wine. Bought be two six packs!

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Nice.. I should really try it fresh.

BTW I use a foam stopper that I soaked in Star-San; everyone does it different. I was never comfortable with the tin foil method

Hop_machine said:

2 hours after second step...yummy yeast

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btw.. Love that stirplate!

I've done tin foil and airlock...like I said I've had a ****ty time with yeast lately with no krausen on my starters...this belgian yeast was expired and I really wanted some indication of life...aka co2 release...before wasting on a 23 lb grain bill

I've made two beers in a row that lagged due to under pitching washed yeast...really sucks because the wlp001 gives off a citrusy / grapefruit flavor that overwhelms the beer...think grapefruit rind not cascade or Amarillo.

Btw I finished all three beers and will never do that again...my heff got neglected and may turn out to be the session beer of the year at a whopping...wait for it...2.8%...oh well I banked the yeast so I'll try again later...

I have done a couple 2 brew days, but don't even want to consider a 3 batch day unless I had assistance. Did my 2 batch last sunday and tasted the porter and BPA yesterday (wanted to get a hydrometer reading after a week). I must say they both need at least another week on the yeast, but they will be very good beers. All you Bristow area geeks are invited to come by in the near future to sample from the kegorator.

Cheers

Sheldon

Hi all. I'm over in Springfield.

Double batches aren't too bad, but a triple batch would be too much for me.

I'm going to brew two batches next weekend, but on separate days.